Just A Few Things: KL Vs. PKNP

Credits: KL Hawks Facebook Page

The Usual Suspects

The match started as pretty much expected; PKNP FC keeping a nice defensive shape between their box and the halfway-line. Kuala Lumpur (KL) found it hard to get the ball forward and found themselves forced to hold possession between their defenders. It was no surprise given PKNP is known for their defensive discipline.

Whenever KL do get their ball inside PKNP’s half, that player with the ball would get surrounded quickly by at least three PKNP players. PKNP gave no room for KL to play their sharp passes. Guilherme De Paula also found himself guarded by one of the PKNP players so he had a tough night. It was going smoothly at first for the Perak-based team.

KL’s Lockpicking

Although, KL did have a good idea on how to get through that rock-solid PKNP defense. It’s going to take some creativity to get KL going, in which they have thanks to Paulo Josue. But with so many defenders surrounding the Brazilian midfielder, he couldn’t get the ball to his teammates at first. But on 23 minutes, Paulo Josue played a huge part when he dummied Hafiz Johar’s pass, knowing that Indra Putra had so much space

KL had two other ways to get through: Winning the ball in midfield and exploiting whatever pockets of space. And the latter is the reason how Indra Putra got the goal. The former was a factor of how KL got their attacks going, When PKNP had the ball midfield, they had a few players up in front. So, KL worked hard to dispossess them to catch them out. It almost rewarded another goal, but Guilherme’s shot was wide of the far post. KL finally figured out how to probe PKNP’s final third. But that in turn…

PKNP Looked Good Going Forward, But…

So because of Indra Putra’s goal perhaps against the run of play, it forced PKNP to chase the game and that resulted in abandoning their defensive shape. They kept at least a few men at the back while they commit more men going towards the KL box. They were fast in threatening the KL goal.

Franklin Anzite work-rate was excellent and his strong physique had caused trouble to whoever is going up against him when scuffling for the ball. PKNP may look good in attack, but if you’re relying on a centre-back/defensive midfielder as your only centre-forward, you’re not going to score many. There were a few others such as Norhakim Isa (Whose shot was cleared off the line by Bobirjon Akbarov) and Sukri Hamid supporting Franklin, but they never looked that reliable goalscorer PKNP needed. Which begs the question…

Does PKNP Miss Shahrel Fikri?

To be honest, the jury is still out on this question. On one hand PKNP doesn’t seem like they miss their star player as they demonstrated when they attacked. On the other hand, they were missing a reliable goalscorer that gets those precious goals. Even PKNP’s goal ten minutes from stoppage time came from an own goal by poor Saifulnizam Miswan who got a rare start ahead of Achmad Jufriyanto.

But playing Franklin, who is primarily a defensive-midfielder, as your main striker highlights either the problem that PKNP has in the striker department or the lack of trust in the local talent. If you don’t have a trustworthy striker, why not bring your youth academy players up to the main squad? Well, they eventually did a few minutes after the restart.

Fandi Shows Promise

It’s strange that despite a lack of that foreign centre-forward almost every other team has, PKNP head coach Abu Bakar Fadzim still doesn’t trust in the local strikers to lead the attack. Better late than never however, he decided he’s seen enough and bought on a striker by the name of Fandi (Yes, that is what the teamsheet said) on 49 minutes.

Give credit to Fandi, he looked lively since he came on. If Franklin had to be shoehorned as a centre-forward, he needed at least a natural forward to ease the pressure off him and that’s what Fandi did. Fandi got himself in good positions like a goal poacher. Only problem is he didn’t take full advantage of two great chances where his header point-blank went somehow wide and his volley also went wayward despite having a clear sight at goal. It’s still early days for PKNP’s no. 30, but he showed glimpses of what he can do.